Monkey Steve

I've always preferred to bring a spare just in case, but my last lot didn't have any transport (playing gigs round London where the PA and backline would be supplied) and it's a lot easier getting on the tube with just one bass. I'd still have preferred to have a spare with me (and it's the only band I've played with where the bass did completely fail mid-gig...fortunately "mid" was half way through the final song) but I'll make do. Though I'd never do a gig playing guitar without a spare - breaking strings is my speciality. Even when I've had more than one bass, I've got out of the habit of changing mid-set because one song sound better on a different bass - partly it's because I seemed to be the only person who noticed anyway, but also I'm now much more likely to try a different playing technique to vary the tone.

Sounds to me like there's a bigger issue behind all of this, certainly from the OP's side, than whether or not the band play the gig. Personally I'd also be a bit miffed if a band i was in suggested doing a gig without me, but if it was clearly a situation where everybody else wanted to play it and I couldn't make it (rather than them, say, telling me that they've got a dep in for the next gig so I don't need to show up) then I'd let them get on with things with my blessing. And if it's a rearranged gig that I couldn't make (rather than a gig that they had booked knowing that I wouldn't be available), I'd expect the band to see if they could do it without me. I certainly wouldn't be expecting any share of the money, even if I'd loaned them a load of my gear. As others have said, this sort of thing does happen from time to time. So it's all about how you deal with it. Playing Devil's advocate, from their point of view, you expecting them to cancel the gig if you can't make it means that none of them are getting paid because you have booked a holiday - you've gone from a bad outcome for just you to a bad outcome for the three of them instead. I've been on the other side of this a few times - one band did a gig when one of the guitarists was playing on a different continent with his other band and he was fine about it (in fact it was always understood that if a gig came up that he couldn't make then we'd do it without him),; and an old covers band was asked to do a Christmas gig at one of our favourite venues when the singer was away with his family so the rest of us filled in for him (and went down so well that it became a regular Christmas thing and we'd always check to make sure that he was going to be away before booking our Christmas gig). We never fell out with the missing band members, and it was never put across as any sort of threat to their membership of the band. The missing singer left his PA with us so that we could do the gig and it was all very grown up (although unusually among singers he is a genuinely lovely bloke who wants to see his mates doing well on stage even if he is watching from the side - we once did as gig supporting Edward Tudor Pole doing an acoustic set who asked us to learn Swords Of A Thousand Men so that we could be his backing band for his encore, and our singer retreated to the audience and later told us that it was his proudest moment as a band member). If anything, it reinforced his position in the band that he was such a good mate about it all. Ego aside, doesn't seem like there's much to gain by spitting your dummy out other than a big row and an ongoing feeling of resentment from the rest of the band that you're not a very good mate. It's not like you're using the PA for something else that week so not letting the band borrow it isn't going to make them like you very much and lending it to them doesn't put you in a worse position. I'm not sure if you're fed up with them and about to quit anyway, in which case telling them to F off is likely to bring things to a head, or if you're just feeling a bit taken for granted and under appreciated, maybe a bit insecure, in which case telling them to F off isn't likely to improve things. I suggest an adult chat about how they see your role in the band, whether this is a deliberate sleight and they think you are dispensable, or if they think it's just a practical solution to honouring a rearranged booking that you now can't make.

My far more basic solution to this (in my case balancing a passive and an active bass) is a MXR Micro Amp, which is a pretty clean boost. Set everything up using the active bass and leaving the Micro Amp off, then swap to the passive bass, switch on the pedal and turn the knob until the volume matches the active bass. Has the bonus of only having one knob to worry about (insert knob joke here) and being built like a tank

I'm with Lozz. Regardless of whether you are being exploited by some tool of a promoter, you can still get something out of it. If you have nothing better to do that night, and it's not costing you a huge outlay to get there, turn up, bring the crowd, play your set and impress everybody. make contacts with other bands, and exploit the situation for whatever you can get out of it. If you are the one bringing the crowd then the promoter/other promoters in attendance will no doubt be quite keen to get you back and you're not going to do it for free next time are you? And if it is a small scene then getting a reputation for being dependable is always a good thing...as long as you can avoid getting a reputation for playing for free...

I was at a festival a few weeks ago and a fairly well known band (in death metal circles, possibly not "fairly well known" in any absolute terms) has an acoustic kit with an electronic bass drum. Looked very weird - the drum itself was tiny as it only needs to be big enough to hit by the pedal, and was actually part of his set up to do with triggers, but it sounded just as good as an acoustic drum and obviously much easier to control volume wise (not that that's a particular issue for them) I also have one drummer mate who much prefers his electronic kit - small, light, very controllable and can sound like anything he wants - and is permanently fed up that the rest of his band won't let him use it live because it just doesn't look right for a metal band

I hadn't heard of Hot Rods so I googled it to see what they were... Found a thread on a drummers discussion board answering an identical question about being too loud for smaller venues, and one of them honestly suggests that to be quieter on stage the offending drummer should mic up his kit because that way they can turn the volume down through the PA

oh FFS!! Sorry - totally missed that you had said that in your post but still, FFS!

going off at a tangent a bit but I bet "the neighbour" had been making formal complaints. A pub that an old band of mine used to play regularly was well known as a local music venue, but in a very pretty village. Their life was made a misery when a new couple moved in across the road and were surprised to find that the pub advertising live music was quite noisy, and started complaining to the Council. Fortunately for the landlord the bloke from the Council understood that somebody moving in opposite a music pub shouldn't get much sympathy, but the onus was put on the landlord to show that he had taken "reasonable measures" to limit the noise. Not a noise limiter, but insulation to be put over the windows before the band even started soundchecking, and a strict curfew of 11.00. He always made a point of asking us to be as quiet as possible when loading out, just to save the hassle of yet another visit from the council where the neighbour couldn't complain about the music as that was within the agreed rules, but could complain about general noise from the pub after closing time. It only takes one determined person to make a venue's life a misery.

I'm another one who's paranoid that downloads will be lost at some point in the future, and my preference is for CDs. If I get something that is only available as a download then the first thing I do is burn it to CD. I have about 3,500 CDs and counting I've started getting more vinyl of late (having sold the thousand or so albums that I had a couple of decades ago once they had been replaced by CDs...still regret that but financial needs and a complaining girlfriend won the day) but it's largely as part of the deluxe reissues where vinyl comes as part of the package. I am the Super Fan. In fact, the last couple of non-deluxe vinyl purchases have been where something has only been released on vinyl which comes with a download (which i then immediately burn to CD). But I much prefer vinyl as a thing to have, even if it doesn't get played much. And I rarely listen to CDs at home either - most of my listening to music outside of gigs is on my phone while travelling. Although I have been getting into 5.1 mixes being played on my surround sound set up (not as high quality as my hifi but still pretty good). And I do listen to whole albums: rarely anything else. So I have spent some money on getting a DAC for my phone and some decent headphones which has hugely improved the quality of the sound. But I try not to sit in judgement. I have plenty of friends who just don't want "stuff". they have quality equipment for playing files, and unlike me don't have rooms full of CDs. Same with films - I have a room full of blu rays, they have a box that will play whatever they want to see.

please, you have got to expand on that

Personally, I tend to be able to put up with most people until the limits of their talent has been exhausted. I've definitely got some not very friendly relationships with former band members, but they started at the point of the sacking (or shortly beforehand). I haven't been surprised and am not fussed by them, but it always seems to be that when things are going well in the band their annoying tendencies are just little quirks like everybody else has got, and when things are going badly they are evidence of what terrible human beings they are. One in particular, was a really nice bloke, but being a lead guitarist, a bit of a c#nt. When we formed the band, me and the drummer were waiting to see exactly how he proved to be a c#nt, because there was no evidence of anything we seriously objected to, maybe he was the exception that makes the rule, great feller, good to hang out with, etc. By the time we sacked him it had all soured and we had no desire to ever see him again, and certainly never play in a band with him again, and we've all stayed out of each others way. But if he hadn't been so much of a c#nt in the band, I'm sure we'd all still get along brilliantly

My last lot was a load of mates, some closer than others - I only really knew the lead guitarist very well, who asked the singer from one of his other bands, and the rhythm guitarist from another old band who brought a drummer that he knew with him. We all knew each other well enough to say hello to in the pub, but for some of us it wasn't any closer than that before the band started. Fell apart when the singer's coke habit got out of control. Shame, because when he was good he's got a great voice, but when he was bad he'd not show up to rehearsals, and did a couple of gigs where he could barely sing. We sacked him and the band soldiered on for a while but gave up when we couldn't find anybody to replace him who was half as good. After a period in rehab(ish) he was back and ready to go again, and we had a chat about either reforming the band or doing something new. He was really up for it, but refused to have anything to do with the rhythm guitarist or drummer. Because he hated them. Really, really hated them. I'd never spotted any particular issues between them and was confused But on asking why, it turns out that he'd maintained the peace while he was in the band, but on reflection there was a lot of passive/aggressive stuff between them all, which boiled down to him thinking that the other two weren't very "rock n roll" (the drummer was quite posh) and looked down on him (which they did, for his various failings) and them thinking that he wasn't worth the trouble due to his history of letting us down. When the band started and for the first couple of years we'd practice every Saturday in Holloway and then have a night out in Camden. That then declined over the next year or so with one side or the other finding excuses to not come to the pub after all, usually after finding out whether the other(s) were definitely coming out. They all now tolerate each other's presence if we all happen to be out in the same pub at the same time, but that's about it. Changing tack from my old bands, a drummer mate of mine is trying out for a Police tribute band. I have already suggested that the test of whether the chemistry is mirroring the original is whether he has a fight with the singer/bass player at the audition

agreed, it's largely just a pre-set level of gain adjustment, and really the only issue is the output level from the bass, and the fact that an active bass can boost it's level. If I'm switching between active and passive basses during a set (tends not to happen very much these days) I tend to compensate elsewhere, usually an MXR Micro Amp in the chain to boost the passive signal. The least fiddling that I have to do with the amp the better.

To illustrate the "there's no right or wrong" point, I tend to do the reverse - get the amp as close to the tone I want (and excellent point about clipping), and then use the eq on the bass for fine tuning.

I'm suggesting that you apologise for accusing the salesman of lying to you and saying that he couldn't be bothered to go and find a bass head that you were sure they had in stock when all the evidence seems to suggest that he was in fact telling you the truth and they didn't have a bass head in stock that you could have tried. I'm not saying that it's a great way to sell a bass cab and if your criticism was that it's a stupid way to sell something because it can't be demo'd then that would be fair, but that's not what your complaint was, is it?

Have to say, I like Guitar Village a lot, and have only ever had excellent service there. They always seem to get the balance right between being helpful when you need assistance and leaving you alone to try the instruments out for as long as you want/need. But I'm very unlikely to go there to get any bass gear because that's not really their business, very much a token effort (and having just had a look at their website to refresh my memory it is a fairly standard high street largely Fender and Ibanez selection, with only one five string in the whole shop - this is a vast expansion on what they had in the way of basses a few years ago). Unlike, say, Andertons, they don't have a warehouse down the road stocked with gear that isn't on display,, and given that they aren't bass specialists and the website says that they don't have any bass heads in stock, perhaps you owe the assistant an apology

The drummer sounds like I do whenever a girlfriend says to me "we need to talk" I don't think he's expecting it to go well for him. From my own experience, most of the niggles in your original post are exactly the sort of things that I can generally put up with if everything's going brilliantly, and immediately start to grate as soon as they're not. And from my own experience, the others will have no idea that they're doing anything wrong - people who are always late simply cannot understand why anybody gets upset about them being late all the time, etc. From an impartial point of view (well, impartialish) the one red flag in what you said was that the drummer is still making mistakes on tempos and endings, etc. I'm a bit unclear on how long the band's been together but these things should be nailed after a couple of rehearsals, not continually making the same mistakes. No advice from me on whether to stay or go, but if you're not enjoying it and you're not getting anywhere, why would you stay unless things change?

I checked out the current Les Paul range when somebody (a non-musician) told me that they'd finally got to this stage and was telling me to hold onto my Gibsons in case they become valuable collectors items in the future. Clearly somebody will buy them and come up with a less ridiculous business model - they currently have about 200 different variations of Les Pauls to choose from, most of them small runs of very expensive signature editions - some more than $20k. No wonder they aren't selling many guitars

In general I agree and it's definitely true for singers. The exception would depend on what the band have told you about what they're looking for, and how bad the previous incumbent was...if they're saying that the last bloke was rubbish, or that they want someone who can do something different then it's probably not the best idea

and for us it was the exact opposite. Experience was of no concern whatsoever

But we weren't looking for anything as binary as "have you played solidly for the last year in bar bands?" We were looking for someone who would fit in with us and contribute musically to the stuff we were writing, and the band was built on bringing in different, competing influences to see what happened. There isn't any way to tell until they are in the studio. In the end we got a drummer who's only experience was playing in jazz bands - he worked out brilliantly.

Holloway 2014 Another one as auditioner, not auditionee The band had just sacked our singer - great voice, huge coke problem. We'd recorded a three track demo before the sacking and had started to get some reasonable gigs, so we posted some ads on a few websites, and got quite a good response, sent out a lot of CDs, lyric sheets and links. But noticeably a lot of people claiming that they didn't have demos or Youtube links themselves - they'd sung in hard rock bands, we just couldn't listen to them in advance. What follows took place over a few weeks, but they all blur into one after a while. Contestant #1 arrives, and has very clearly never been in a studio with a band before. English isn't his first language, and he he's extremely nervous, barely speaks, and when we ask him which of the three demo tracks he'd like to try first he admits that he only really knows one, hasn't learned the lyrics, but will try and remember them. He mumbles his way through the song, misses queues, generally makes a mess of it. We offer him a spare lyric sheet in the hope that he will be better. It is no better. rather than prolong the agony we thank him and send him on his way. Contestant #2 arrives. An Eastern European, his spoken English is much better than #1, and he is quite confident. Says he has only learned two of the three songs, as the vocal timing on the third one is tricky (which is true). We're playing '70/80's style hard rock. he bellows his way through like a death metal singer (possibly there was some confusion because the band contained a few people who are fairly well known in the death metal field). Not even good death metal, just loud shouting. Thanks, we'll let you know... Contestant #3 has sent us some links to an old band on Youtube, and while a bit cleaner cut than our ideal candidate, can clearly sing and has a great front man personality. I've very keen in advance, but some of the band think that he'll need to be a bit sleazier to fit in with the band's image. He arrives, very full of confidence, with a box under his arm containing a new vocal FX pedal that he's just bought and is very keen to try out with a band. He sets that up and spends the first third of the allotted time singing into the mic and playing with the knobs on the pedal. We're very clearly bored so get his attention and ask which song he wants to try first, has he learned all of them? Not exactly. he likes the songs and everything, but thinks he can do better than the original vocal melodies so what he's done is re-written all the lyrics and melodies, or at least he's started re-writing them, so he'll go with what he's got but we might have to bear with him as he hasn't worked it all out. He is dreadful. He can clearly sing, but is all over the place, missing queues, singing over solos, just a complete mess. I was keen to give him a talking to and ask him back, but the band member who were already not keen vetoed that idea. (I was the one who let him down and he realised that he'd made a bit of an @rse of himself, and in retrospect knew that he should just have learned the songs, shown up and sung them as well as possible...opportunity missed for all of us) Contestant #4 had also sent Youtube links for old bands - I think he was Greek and had played in similar style hard rock bands over there. The vocals weren't great, but he was clearly a good front man and maybe the live clips didn't do him justice. Came in, long hair and leather jeans, spotted that the lead guitarist was the key decision maker and started talking to him about all his contacts with promoters, how to get the band noticed, bigger, better gigs, etc. Barely speaks to the rest of us, and the guitarist completely falls for it, total bromance happening in front of our eyes. Then he sings. Has learned the songs, hits his queues, knows the lyrics. But Youtube doesn't lie, and his is out of tune, and it's not good when he is hitting the right notes. The lead guitarist was keen to get him back to try again, but the rest of the band exercised our veto. Unfortunately for this one, the lead guitarist was never the key decision maker, he'd read it all wrong. Lots of repeats of Contestants #2 and #4 followed before we lost heart and broke the band up.

Leatherhead, 2002 A band I was in had fallen apart (terrible singer, drummer who was off his meds...didn't find out he was ever on meds until after he disappeared one week never to return, but it explained a lot, and gave us the excuse to sack the terrible, terrible singer) so me and the guitarist were trying to find replacements. First up a drummer. Lots of ads, no responses. Then we get a reply, so we send out some rough tapes of a couple of songs and book a rehearsal studio. The drummer, arrives, half an hour late, early 20's, looking like he's slept in a hedge. But he's a drummer, so that's not unusual. But better spoken than somebody who sleeps in hedges, and explains that he hasn't had much sleep because he was "in Camden last night, and you know how that goes". Sets up his kit, and looks like he's about to pass out. We ask him which of the songs we've sent him he wants to try first. He picks one, we launch into it, and he doesn't seem to have actually bothered listening to the song at all. Wrong tempo, not picking up any of the changes, fills in the wrong places, just all over the place. We stutter to a halt and he admits that he's dreadful, what with him having been "in Camden" last night. Do we mind if he goes outside for a smoke to relax himself? Fine. Turns out that he's not talking about having a cigarette. Rolls himself a joint in the car park (we politely refuse - I don't, and the guitarist, who usually would, is driving and not stupid). Back into the studio and he suggests that rather than playing the songs we sent him (and he clearly hasn't listened to) why don't we have a jam, loosen up, and come back to our songs? The demos we sent him were funky/punky up tempo style indie metal. he launches into a slow, stoner-y (no pun intended) dirge that drags on for quite some time. he seems very pleased with himself. We are bored beyond belief. We made up the existence of another drummer who was expected soon so we'll need to pack up now, thanks for coming and we'll let you know...

Guildford, early 2000's Not exactly an audition... A mate who had a band, mainly with people he knew through work, had booked a gig without really considering that they didn't actually have a bass player. They didn't play very much and I'd never seen them, but he had a knack of playing pubs near work on Friday nights so their mates (apart from me) and everybody they worked with would come along, the pub would sell a lot of beer and the band would go down pretty well. He was the BL, and being a mate I said that I'd come down to a practice, see if we gelled, and assuming no disasters I'd cover for the gig... The lead guitarist had been to GIT in LA and had lessons from Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. The BL, on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, was a triumph of enthusiasm over talent. Quite a contrast. The drummer had previously left the band to move to Spain with his wife, but having found out that she'd been cheating on him almost as soon as the plane landed, was back a year later, in a slightly fragile emotional state. It was difficult to tell if he was any good as he hadn't played the drums since moving to Spain, and was extremely rusty. There was also a female singer who did BVs and a couple of lead vocals, who was OK, not spectacular. That the drummer very obviously fancied. Really not subtle at all. And despite her being happily married. The previous bass player was someone at work who liked the idea of being in a band and owned a bass from when he was younger, but now had better things to do. I'd got a list of half a dozen covers to learn, some unusual choices but fairly mid-paced rock from the Beatles to Radiohead, nothing too trying, all in the original keys. This'll be fun... It rapidly became apparent that the position of BL was purely ceremonial, with no actual leading going on. If everybody started and stopped in more or less the same place, it was a success as far as he could see. the main problem was both his very average guitar playing, and his below par vocals. The odd song would be in the right key for him, and it wouldn't sound bad, but most of them weren't, so rather than changing the key, or letting the girl take those ones, he would screech his way through. And think he'd done a great job. We rush through the covers and the BL wants to move on. I suggest that we weren't sounding very good, how about we work on some of the issues...I politely point out a few parts where the drums were out and the BL played the wrong thing at various points, and it's really lacking in any dynamics... The drummer takes this OK, and apologises that he's a bit rusty, plus the previous bass player wasn't really one for any dynamics (his strength seemed to have been playing the root note of whatever chord the BL was playing) so he's not used to the bass trying to do any more than that. The BL concedes that he isn't playing all of his parts correctly, what with some of them being quite tricky for his standard of playing, and made more complicated because he is singing at the same time, but he thought he'd covered them OK and I'd only noticed because I'd been listening to the songs to learn the bass parts, nobody in the crowd would spot it. I also pointed out that a lot of the vocals would be better if we changed the keys to better suit his voice. Or did different songs that were better suited to his voice. He actually took that very well because he knew when his voice was straining, and was genuinely interested in the idea, but thought it wasn't worth trying right then as he'd need to go away and work on which keys were the right ones. Fair point. The BL insisted that we'll be fine with another couple of practices, and he wants to move on because he's written some songs and wanted the band to focus on playing those at future gigs rather than just covers. He shows the band how they go and we work our way through them. They are all dreadful. Nobody else in the band seems very enthusiastic, but out of politeness nobody says anything, so the BL thinks that they are dead keen to play them. The lead guitarist seemed completely bored, so I had a chat with him during a break. He knew exactly how bad the band was, but like me, the BL was a good mate, and with a couple of very young kids and a wife who clearly wore the pants in his house, this was his one excuse to get out and play his guitar. they didn't play very much, and he was happy to remain at a very low level weekend warrior level. We ran through the set, such as it was, one more time. the drummer was even worse, the girl has joined the lead guitarist in looking very bored, possibly because she is clearly the best singer in the band but only has a couple of lead vocals and none in the new songs, and only the BL is showing any sign of enjoying himself. He's given me a lift to the studio, and on the way back he asks me how I think it's gone, and would I be interested in joining full time rather than just doing the one gig? Didn't seem to mind in the slightest that I'd spent the night telling them how bad they were (actually, I did try to do it as positively as possible), my bass playing is a definite improvement on the previous incumbent and the band was sounding really good... I politely decline, say that it's not really for me but I'll do the gig if he wants me to. But I am not really very keen. He rings me the following day to say that the girl singer has decided that she'd rather stay in with her hubby than come to any more practices, certainly while the drummer was still there.. They could cope with that by cutting the couple of songs that she sings lead vocals on, but probably wouldn't need to as the drummer had decided that he wasn't in any state to be playing in a band at that time so couldn't commit to anything. They wouldn't find a new drummer in time for the gig, so it was off and I never had to return.

started on bass - my mates all played guitar so i got a bass and was almost instantly in a band. Bought a guitar probably within a couple of years,in theory to help write songs and learn more about music, but by then was in a more serious band and bass playing took all of my energy and focus and I never devoted much time to it. And then the guitar was p/x'd when I needed to pay to get my bass amp repaired (leaving me with a very nice old '70's Marshall guitar combo that I had for a few years without actually owning a guitar to play through it). Got back into the guitar when I came into some money a couple of decades ago and really took to it (half the cash went on a Wal, half on a Les Paul). I still think of myself as a bass player, and wouldn't compare myself to most of the guitarists that I play in bands with (or rather, it's become a test - if the guitarist in question isn't as good at the guitar as me, then they're not good enough to be in my band), but have played guitar in a band, and can hold my own. My "noodling around at home" go to instrument, especially for song writing, is a very nice Lowden acoustic. In my personal experience my bass playing has become better as my guitar playing has improved, but possibly that's more to do with me becoming a better musician overall. I doubt that my 20 year old self would agree that it's down to the guitar playing